Telomerase activity in normal and neoplastic breast.

J Tsao, Y Zhao, J Lukas, X Yang, A Shah, M Press… - Clinical cancer research …, 1997 - AACR
J Tsao, Y Zhao, J Lukas, X Yang, A Shah, M Press, D Shibata
Clinical cancer research: an official journal of the American Association for …, 1997AACR
Telomerase activity is detected in the majority of human tumors and provides a mechanism
to escape from proliferative limitations due to telomere loss. Similar to other studies,
telomerase activity was detected with a modified telomeric repeat amplification protocol in
the majority (76%) of 49 human breast cancer specimens, including most (75%) ductal
carcinoma in situ specimens. There were no correlations between telomerase activity and
tumor stage or estrogen/progesterone receptor status. In four of seven invasive tumors …
Abstract
Telomerase activity is detected in the majority of human tumors and provides a mechanism to escape from proliferative limitations due to telomere loss. Similar to other studies, telomerase activity was detected with a modified telomeric repeat amplification protocol in the majority (76%) of 49 human breast cancer specimens, including most (75%) ductal carcinoma in situ specimens. There were no correlations between telomerase activity and tumor stage or estrogen/progesterone receptor status. In four of seven invasive tumors, telomerase expression seemed to be heterogeneous because not all microdissected regions were telomerase positive. Low levels of telomerase activity were also detected in a minority (17%) of breast specimens from patients without evidence of cancer. These findings suggest that telomerase activation can occur early in breast cancer progression and may be periodically down-regulated during subsequent progression.
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